Fredericksburg area readies for Hurricane Florence

Sept. 11--Hurricane Florence, now a Category 4 storm, is still swirling over the Atlantic Ocean, but the Fredericksburg region is starting to prepare for impact.

Meteorologist Isha Renta with the National Weather Service said Florence is predicted to make landfall somewhere on the North Carolina coast on Friday morning.

"But there's no certainty of where it will go once it moves inland," she said.

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If the center moves further north, there will be a higher risk to the Fredericksburg area of flooding and tropical storm force winds of 35 to 55 mph. If the storm tracks south or southwest, these risks lessen.

Renta said meteorologists should have a better idea of where Florence is headed tomorrow night or early Thursday.

"Our main concern with all this is the fact that it could bring a large amount of rain. And we've been rained on basically a lot this summer," Renta said. "We want people to keep in mind that since the ground is saturated, flooding is going to be one of the biggest threats of this system."

As of 4 p.m. Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center predicts the area will see between four and six inches of rainfall in the next week. The Richmond area could see between six and 10 inches.

Tuesday afternoon, President Donald Trump approved a federal emergency declaration for the state of Virginia.

Caroline County residents received a notice that they would see FEMA trailers in the vicinity of Fort A.P. Hill, which is being used as a federal staging area for potential recovery operations post-storm.

In Fredericksburg, City Manager Tim Baroody declared a local state of emergency as a result of the storm's threat. City officials are concerned about wind damage, flooding during the event and the possibility of flooding downtown and in other low-lying areas if the Rappahannock River watershed receives anticipated heavy rainfall.

The University of Mary Washington announced Tuesday that all of its campuses will close at 5 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. Academic buildings will be locked and all classes and university events--including Family Weekend and the 29th annual Fredericksburg Welsh Festival, which was to occur Saturday--will be cancelled.

Many other local events have been cancelled this weekend, including the Stratford Hall Wine and Oyster Festival. Riverfest has been rescheduled to Oct. 20 and the Fredericksburg Area Museum's Food Fight FXBG has been rescheduled to Oct. 11.

Local school systems announced that they will monitor the weather and make announcements of closings as decisions are made.

To make travel easier for the 245,000 people who were ordered to evacuate their homes in parts of the Hampton Roads area and the Eastern Shore Tuesday morning, VDOT has already lifted work zone lane closures.

VDOT said on Tuesday that lane closures were lifted at 8 a.m. "on all state-maintained routes to support evacuation efforts from low-lying coastal areas," including on Interstate 95 and U.S. 17.

The department said traffic is being closely monitored on U.S. 17 from Gloucester County to the Fredericksburg area. Signal timing will be adjusted if needed to favor traffic traveling north and west to evacuate.

A press release issued by VDOT also states that teams are readying trucks and equipment for a rapid post-storm response.

VDOT cautions motorists never to drive through water flowing across a road, to slow down while driving through standing water and to never drive around barricades.

For families trying to move belongings out of homes in flood zones, both U-Haul locations in Fredericksburg--along with 38 other locations across Virginia--are offering up to 30 days of free storage to people who might be impacted by the storm.